Avunculicide

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Avunculicide is the act of killing an uncle.[1] The word can also refer to someone who commits such an act. The term is derived from the Latin words avunculus meaning "maternal uncle" and caedere meaning "to cut down" or "to kill". Edmunds suggests that in mythology avunculicide is a substitute for parricide.[2] The killing of a nephew is a nepoticide.[1][2]

In history[edit]

In fiction[edit]

In gaming[edit]

  • Agent 47 kills three of his genetic uncles throughout the events of Codename 47, Silent Assassin, and Contracts.
  • In God of War III (2010), Kratos brutally murders his uncle Poseidon by gouging out his eyes and breaks his neck. He later implements equally brutal and different methods to kill his uncle Hades. He also tore Helios' head off his shoulders with his bare hands.
  • In Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, Huang avenges his father's death by killing his Uncle Kenny Lee because Lee killed Huang's father and tries to kill Huang.
  • In the video game The Darkness, Jackie Estacado, the game's protagonist, kills his "uncle" Paulie in revenge over the death of his girlfriend Jenny Romano, which Paulie himself was responsible for.
  • In Death Stranding, is told in an archive that the antagonist Higgs Monaghan grew up with his abusive uncle. Higgs ended up killing him in self-defence with a knife.

In literature[edit]

Onscreen[edit]

  • Louis Mazzini commits avunculicide in the 1949 movie, Kind Hearts and Coronets.
  • In the 1966 horror movie, Let's Kill Uncle, the evil uncle is to be killed in self-defense.[1]
  • Mass murderer Jason Voorhees is actually stabbed by his previously unmentioned niece Jessica Kimble with a special knife before being dragged to hell in the last official film of the Friday the 13th franchise Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday.
  • In The Lion King, Simba causes his uncle Scar's death by tossing him from the top of the rock, and the hyenas maul him to death.
  • In The Sopranos, Tony Soprano attempts to organize the murder of his paternal uncle, Corrado Soprano, after he and Tony's mother, Livia Soprano had conspired to have Tony "whacked" after a power struggle. The attempt fails, and the incident is revisited throughout the series.
  • In Star Wars: The Last Jedi, the physical stress required to project his image across the galaxy during his fight with his nephew Kylo Ren caused Luke Skywalker to die.
  • In season 1 of Ozark, Ruth Langmore kills her two uncles, Russ and Boyd. This leads her father, Cade, to ask in season 2: "...what the fuck is the word for a girl killing her uncles?"
  • During Gotham, Jerome Valeska breaks out of prison and kills his uncle Zachary by shooting him in revenge for his uncle's abuse. Previously Zachary tried to kill Jerome.
  • In Young Justice, Geo-Force defeats his uncle Baron Bedlam for kidnapping his sister, orchestrating his parents' murder, and betrayed the crown. After his teammates stop him, he nearly rescinds his choice but ultimately kills his uncle after the latter escapes and goads him to kill him, which he does by making him choke on hot lava.
  • In the Third episode of the Fifth season of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Jake Peralta wants to be given a case when he comes back to work and one of the types of cases he asks about is an Avunculicide.

See also[edit]

Familial killing terms
  • Filicide, the killing of one's child
  • Fratricide, the killing of one's brother
  • Mariticide, the killing of one's husband
  • Matricide, the killing of one's mother
  • Parricide, the killing of one's parents or another close relative
  • Patricide, the killing of one's father
  • Prolicide, the killing of one's offspring
  • Sororicide, the killing of one's sister
  • Uxoricide, the killing of one's wife
Non-familial killing terms from the same root
  • Deicide, the killing of a god
  • Genocide, the systematic killing of a large group of people, usually an entire ethnic, racial, religious or national group
  • Homicide, the killing of a human
  • Infanticide, the killing of an infant from birth to 12 months
  • Regicide, the killing of a monarch (king or ruler)
  • Tyrannicide, the killing of a tyrant
  • Feminicide, the gender-based killing of a woman
  • Androcide, the gender-based killing of a man

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c "Nepoticide v. Avunculicide". Time. Retrieved June 6, 2009.
  2. ^ a b Edmunds L (November 1995). Oedipus: A Folklore Casebook. University of Wisconsin Press, 1995. p. 64. ISBN 0-299-14854-8.
  3. ^ Bede (2008). The Ecclesiastical History of the English People. Oxford University Press: J. McClure and R. Collins. p. 222.
  4. ^ Barbara Tuchman (1978). A Distant Mirror. New York: A.A. Knopf. p. 418.
  5. ^ "1975: Saudi's King Faisal assassinated, BBC On this Day". BBC News. March 25, 1975.
  6. ^ "Equatorial Guinea 'thwarts coup attempt'". 3 January 2018. Retrieved 29 January 2019.
  7. ^ Leona Toker. Nabokov. The Mystery of Literary Structure. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York, 1989. Page 63. ISBN 0-8014-2211-6